Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-01-09

who has tyrannized over eight admirinl
| brothers and been treated all her lift
with Difference by fond father and I'M.
cles has an upgrateful scorn tor men.
had had no meek mother and aunts and
sisters to teach me humility as becom
ing womanly virtue.
'Poor Cis-poor Cicely!" said tn,
Qirls. "And Saturday is coming ant
You will be forced to see him. Poor
poor Cicely"
Yes, Saturday was coming. Wednes
day, Thursday and Friday / went abou'
with constant consciousness of Satur
days inevitable advance. Our lecturer
had stated that on Saturday Afternoon
he would be pleased to go through oul
papers with us to discuss points OF inter
est. explain difficulties and remove pos
sible misconceptions. We were to &c
to him singly. / was to go alone to the
man who, / had said, was shy of me and
thought of me as girl and could not
forget that l was girl, whom had
called copper colored, whom had said
blushed. The thought was terrible.
Saturday came. The girls were cheer.
full. "Go first, Cis," they said-"go
first and get it over"
Eyes, l will go first" l said. But
when he came faltered and put off the
evil moment, and Claudia, Nell and Lot.
tie all went in before me.
"He is not shy to-day" reported Nell
ON her return. II think, Cs, that per-
haps we were mistaken about him. Or,
perhaps, he was under the impl ession
that we were learned girls; after our
papers and our chatter he kno as us bet.
ter and thinks very little of us. He is
solemn-horrible solemn! And no old
man could be severer. Oh, he is quite
at his ease"
Nell had reported truly. He was
quite at his ease. He was sitting wait.
ing at q table which had pens and ink
and papers ON it; there was no expec-
fancy 10 his attitude; he seemed II little
bored. indeed; he sat with his back
toward the door, one elbow on the
table, his hand propping his chin. he
rose when he heard me. and looked ut
me calmly enough as he shook hands.
"Miss Cbrystal!" he said.
EYES," l said meekly.
He touched a chair that stood beside
his Mt the table, and / sat down with a
feeling of obedience. His face was
grave, his mannar. as Nell had said,
severe; | wondered how l could have
thought him nervous; he looked as
thos gh be had never blushed; he
seemed quite unaffected by the con-
sciousness that his pupil was girl. He
seated himself beside me and drew a
corrected exercise toward him.
"This, l think, is your paper Miss
Chry stal?"
"Yes," said in small voice-"1
think so. Mr.. Tudor"
He was turning the pages slowly and
gravely. l sat looking down at my
hands folded meekly on the table, and
did not see his face.
"Your first answer isis Inadequate. ="
"The first part of Stubbs isis very
difficult" l said, venturing to look up.
There was strange, quick little
twinkle for moment in his eyes as he
glanced at me. but his lips did not smile.
SIN the next question" he said slowly,
"you confuse--or seem to confuss--two
things, the constitutions and the Assize
of Clarendon-a slip, perhaps!"
He was looking steadily and calmly at
me, waiting. For the first time in my
life felt small and young and meek. l
forgot that l was nineteen. and no longer
schoolgirl. was overwhelmed with
a sense of my ignorance. "No, it was
not a slip" l said. Constitutional
histery is quite-quite new to me"
$50 l hive gathered from your
paper" he said quietly.
His very gravity and quietness seemed
like bitterest satire. He said he did not
grasp my theory here-did not follow
my argument there. Aud had had no
theory-I could not follow my own ar
gument. He grew more grave and
quiet and slow. The lump in my throat
grew larger every moment. If l had
been brought up in a family of girls l
should have burst into tears before him.
sat still and locked at my brown fin.
gers clasping one another and answered
briefly.
At last he pushed back his chair
little and gave me my paper folded.
"You will have to read very steadily,
Miss Crystal"
"Yes," said, in small voice.
''For some months"
"Yes," l said again.
"The res. of the class are far ahead of
you."
"Yes-yes, l know" said.
He seemed 10 have nothing more,
humiliating, to say to me;
and l understood that the interview
might end, and rose to go. He rose, too,
Most of our lecturers
nodded at us and sat still. Mr.. Tudor
conceded something to my girlhood; he
stood when l stood, and remained stand.
ing as be continued to speak to me. He
threw out crumb of praise.
"Your style is clear, he said. "When
you deal with subjects within your grasp
when you do not get out of your
style is clear decidedly
Not an altogether historical style, but
lucid"
felt that, on tie whole, his blame
had been less humliating than his praise.
He held open the door for me, and shook
hands gravely with quiet smile.
Good afternoon" he said.
OOou diternoop, repHtu, and
fed.
The girls had invaded my study, and
were lazily stretched on my bed and
window-seat and rug, waiting for me.
"Well, they said.
l sat down beside Claudia on the
hearth rug and tore my corrected paper
into small atoms and burned them. 81
hate him." l said, pokipg the fire vigor-
ously and pushing the smoldering paper
into the flames. II hate him! He
thinks me 'conceited, He thinks me
horrid! He tries to be satirical because
he thinks me puffed up. He laughs at
mel saw it in his eyes--more than
once-always--every time l looked at
him. l said-I said he blushed-I said
he thought of me as a girl said he
blushed because l spoke to him. And
he despises me! And he will never,
never forget!"
And there l forgot that l belonged to
a family of boys where no one ever wept,
and burst into sudden tears! and Claudia,
Nall and otfie fall tn comf fortino mo